Exam Project: Retro Gaming INSPIRATION

I recently received a Sinclair ZX Spectrum from my Grandad. Whilst looking through the games I noticed that every game contained a warning, or instructions for when the game doesn't load. This is absolutely absurd to thing to sell a game that doesn't actually work all the time. In this day and age it would be recalled straight away if this happened. People always look back on retro games with glazed nostalgic eyes and only remember the good things. They forget about the fact that these games were a bit temperamental. I remember having the blow the dust out of many gameboy and sega cartridges and this is something I will look to poke fun at in my animation.

Exam Project: Ray Harryhausen.

"The computer is a remarkable thing, I have a great respect for it but I think its a tool, it doesnt mean you have to use a computer for every type of story, I think different types of story, animation ads that quality, the dream quality." - Ray Harryhausen.

This quote is very interesting. Ray Harryhausen is a stop-frame animator who worked on early stop-frame movies such as, Clash of the Titans and King Kong. He is thought of as a pioneer of the art of stop-motion animation. The reason I find this quote interesting is because of the 'dream quality' he talks about. This refers back to what I said in the first post in this blog in the way we see stop-motion. Its real, it exists outside of a computer screen and when you watch these still objects bought to life it is almost magical and 'dream-like'. This is another reason I am inspired to create a stop motion.

Exam Project: Mosaics, Halftone.

Essentially all that has been created in the 'Deadline' post-it stop frame animation is a series of mosaics that when viewed in quick succession appear to be animated.

Mosaic




"Mosaic in an art from associated more with antiquity than with the modern age, but there is a continuous historical tradition that can be traced from classical greece to the present day." - Tessa Hunkin, Modern Mosaic, 2003.

Used as an early form of art, mosaics can be seen through-out history right back to 8 B.C. Mosaic is the art of creating an image using materials such as stone, glass or even black eyed peas. These materials are usually coloured and when combined together they create a much larger image, much like pixels do, but in a more obvious way (it takes millions and millions of pixels to create an image compared to a mosaic). These designs are usually seen in historical buildings such as churches, cathedrals or ancient ruins, although this is not to say that they are not used in modern design.

Halftone / Ben-Day Dots



In a similar style to mosaic, which uses smaller objects to create a bigger image, the technique halftone/ben-day dots uses a series of different sized dots to create a larger image. When viewed close up these dots are very visible, but when viewed at a distance they are seen complete images. This technique is commonly used in print.

Roy Lichtenstein



An artist who emphasises the halftone/Ben-Day dot technique is pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. His artwork contains big bold comic book style characters blown up to a size where most of the individual dots are visible. The images are very bold and use brightly coloured colours which have big black outlines which make his work stand out and instantly recognisable.

This all links back to the 'Deadline' animation where a series of smaller objects create a larger image. For my animation I plan to use an object that used everyday by nearly everyone in the western world and that is the milk bottle top. The reason I am going to use this is because it is the perfect shape to represent a Ben-Day dot, which when combined in a mosaic of many bottle tops will create a larger image.

Exam Project: Retro Gaming

Human Tetris.

Human tetris is a stop frame animation created entirely out of humans. Filmed in an auditorium, the classic arcade game is recreate almost perfectly. It is a really clever twist on a classic game. This video has inspired me to include retro game characters in my animation. The reason that these videos that contain retro games is because their simple graphics, lack of detail and bold colours make them easy to recreate using different mediums.



This sprite of Mario shows how easily the characters were made up, consisting of very rough edges, block colours and no details. I feel these can be created out of milk bottle tops ( the medium I have decided to use for my animation).




Pixels - Patrick Jean

Pixels is a stunning piece of animation. Set in New York, a TV is abandoned as rubbish, shortly after this pixels exploded out the TV and invade the city. It combined CGI and live action footage. The pixels then set out to destroy the city. Space invaders shoot at taxis, Breakout paddles destroy the Brooklyn Bridge and Pacman eats the subway system. As these things are destroyed they are turned into pixels, the transition from a real life object and the CGI pixelated version is seamless which makes animation truly beautiful. As Tetris takes out part of the Empire State building the pixels seem to resemble a kind of terrorist attack which makes it mildly controversial after the 2001 attacks but this doesnt take away from the piece.